We ended up on State Street. For those of you unfamiliar with the Wisconsin’s Capital city – state street is the connecting street to the actual capital building and UWM’s campus. It’s filled to the brim with an eclectic offering of tiny mom&pop shops: eateries, bars, glasswares, clothing, artistic gifts, metaphysical stuff…etc.

It’s also interspersed with an amazing number of very well thought out urban ‘chill’ spaces – fountains, greenery, water amusements, seating areas, and the like.

Because Madison has taken such care in creating an attractive space around the actual Government building(s), State street is a magnet for a very interesting class of people.

To put it bluntly – you get the hippies.

I don’t mean this in a negative way – I LOVE the hippy vibe – these are people who, in any day and age the tag has been affixed, go against the standardized social ‘grain’ of the time. These are the thinkers, the dreamers, the rebels, and the artisans.

In short – my kind of people.

With such an eccentric gathering, how could I NOT bring along a few little artworks to abandon?

I picked a total of 5 pieces for this little trip – an offering of some of my best…and some forms that hadn’t been chosen for abandonment before this.

We’ll start with this little teashop on State Street. The kids wanted something kinda sweet to drink, and I badly needed a bathroom – Sencha Tea Bar served to fulfill both functions. I laughed so hard at the signage in their restroom, I HAD to leave an offering…so the multi-colored fin whirly was perched on the sign. Although my little twiddle isn’t as beautiful as Beyonce – I hope whoever found the piece treasures it as much as I loved making it.

We then wandered down State Street in the direction of the college quad. One of my favorite things about State Street is the mix of old & new. Here…some ancient storefront architecture bracketed with modern high-rises. Perfect if you need some bohemian foodstuffs 😀

Once we emerged into the quad – we found a gathering of flow artists…doing their thing to the beat of a small drum-circle. I don’t know if you can really call 2 drummers a ‘circle’…but I was willing to just go with it. Besides – the beats they performed were infectious – I couldn’t keep my feet still throughout the entire performance.

I managed to drop the dude and the inverted whirly in the quad – the dude ended up between the railings behind the drum circle, and the inverted whirly on one of the concrete seating areas surrounding the quad.

The kids spun things along with the group…after all, they’re flow artists and knew some of these people…and I wandered about the quad with my cell phone camera.

Art comes in many forms – this storm grate isn’t your standard piece of cast iron. This kind of detail is what makes the State Street area something special to visit. And look…I took a selfie of my feet 😀

You know I live in Wisconsin – we worship cows ALMOST as much as we worship beer. I couldn’t help but snap up this little cutie. She was quite intrigued by the flow artist spinning his hoop in the grass.

I don’t need to go to Europe to see a castle…we have one of our very own!

The last piece to be abandoned in the quad was the full Persian keychain. This wasn’t my standard abandonment, however. One of the flow artists was having a birthday. The group stopped in the middle of their performance, and offered impromptu birthday wishes and a pretty green present.

As green was her favorite color…the FP keychain was just the thing – it had green scales attached. S duly presented my little twiddle to her…and she ran over to give me the biggest hug I’d had in quite some time.

We had 1 more stop to make. Mimosa Books & Gifts on State Street is a familiar haunt for the kids – they offer a lot of metaphysical stuff, some Eastern-themed tchotchkes, and tumbled, carved and shaped mineral stones.

Lots of those.

I slipped my final whirly on a corner of the counter when we were checking out.

We then grabbed a bite at the Which-Wich. I tell ya – their lettuce-wich’s are HUGE – and very keto friendly.

We then made our way back to the old cheap-jeep.

But first…

When a building demands a good goosing – who are we to disappoint?

And the last shot I’ve got from the Madison trip? This little gem, spotted as we were getting into the car.

If there were ever any doubts about how Wisconsinites feel about their beer, their football team, and their major religion – I believe this photo has erased all of that – the only thing missing from the signage was an advertisement for bratwurst. We worship hops, the Packers, grilled brats, and Christianity in this state (well, the majority do…I’m the weird one!) and in that order.

As most of us spend 8+ hours/5 days per week at a job that’s not attached to our home, most business locations feature restroom facilities – unless your employer requires you to be male and outdoorsy, in which case there are plenty of trees to choose from.

just stay away from electric fences…

For a little better than a week now in my employer’s bathroom – this has been sitting on top of the toilet paper in the stall I frequent:

Given that 420 was less than 2 weeks ago, and this was a popular meme on Facebook at the same time – it’s not hard to connect a few dots and visualize this little cup having a purpose other than what it was created for…

The company I work for is a large-scale food manufacturer, and this is one of our sample containers. Now…how it got from the shop floor, across the warehouse floor, up the stairs, and into the business office’s ladies room is one mystery – and the reason it hasn’t vanished is a second, bonus mystery.

Personally, I just find it hysterical. Any time I’ve needed a laugh in the past week, I just go potty.

***Official Disclaimer***

Although I haven’t personally indulged in botanical recreation for a long…LONG time, I have no trouble supporting those who do. With all the atrocities committed by one human on another human in this world, we could all do a lot worse than absorbing a chemical substance who’s only side effects are calmness, relaxedness, and a penchant for crunchy, salty snacks.

And – if you believe the hype – a potential cure for some cancers.

So…blaze on, my friends, if you so desire – we need all the relaxed, calm, ‘I need Potato Chips!’ people this world can give us.

Well…that didn’t go according to plan. I checked the weather Sunday night, and saw in the forecast.

50% chance of rain at 7am. 95% chance of rain at 4pm.

Needless to say – I took the car to work today.

Later in the week, I may be able to squeeze in that all important, first walk, as Wednesday is supposed to be in the early 40’s in the AM, a fantastic 56 for the walk home, and the rain should have moved off by then.

Well – last week, I said I was determined to have coffee-flavored whipped cream. I actually did a Mad Max Fury Road-style witness demand.

I did it.

It took a whole lot of cream – 1/2 cup, to be exact, in the bottom of my blender cup. A full tsp of my Mocha Java Mio followed. The blender was dutifully dunked to the bottom of the cup, and the switch pushed.

Little, itty bitty splatters worked their way up the side of the cup and out, coating the blender stick, my hand, and the ‘in the wrong place at the wrong time’ coffeemaker sitting oh so innocently on the counter. BLARG!

I hate making a mess when making something sweet in the kitchen. All those little droplets of coffee sweetened cream WASTED?

**sob**

**sniffle**

I…need…a….tissue…

Sorry…was overcome for a minute…now, where was I?

Oh, yea…

Oddly enough, I had to lift the blender off the bottom of the cup – which stopped the spatters, and quickly turned my liquid cream into thick, fluffy whips.

Extremely quickly – I couldn’t believe how fast this little blender did its job.

I also couldn’t believe how quickly the stuff vanished…

It. Was. Delicious!!!

This week, I’ve been fighting the return of my heartburn. Yea…I did kinda brag about it last week, and Murphy, damn his hide, shot me in the ass for it. The heartburn revolves around either 1) the egg salad I’ve been making, or 2) the summer sausage I’ve been taking to lunch, or 3) the combination of both these proteins in my stomach at the same time.

At least I haven’t had any huge cravings for formerly sweet and/or savory stuff lately – and I’ve stuck within my daily numbers all week long 😀

Here’s week three in review:

Thursday fell into pretty ‘normal’ patterns – the kids & I had to run to the store (sigh…again) and we picked up some steaks.

Friday: I. Went. To. A. Pizza. Place. There’s a new restaurant just around the block – and the SQO was in the mood for pizza, so we walked down and got a pair of pies. Mine was a Greek Veggie Pizza. Once I slid the toppings off the crust onto one of my low-carb tortillas – I was free & clear. And…nom.

Saturday: Coffee. Whipped. Cream. ‘Nuff said…

Sunday: Strangely enough, I only ate 2x today, and was thoroughly fed. I think it helped that I was equally engrossed in making a turbine out of jump rings and scale mail scales. Crafting gets me into the ‘zone’ where food no longer exists 😀

…

Monday: I’ve found another new way (well, for me, I’m sure someone in the culinary world has thought this up) to do my evening vegetable. Frozen green beans, a good dollop of butter, and 2 cloves of garlic – sauteed quickly to get the heat through the ice in the beans, but not enough to make ’em mushy. A bit of salt & pepper – I could eat beans like this for EVAH!

Tuesday: Laundry night. Now…while we DO have a washer & dryer in the basement of my building, the kids & I prefer to go offsite to do our washing. (yes…we’re weird). Laundry night is also Take Out night…we usually buy burgers or subs and eat at the laundromat. Tonight…we went to this sub shop called Jersey Mike’s – you can get any of their sandwiches ‘in a tub’ – making it into a salad. And, bonus, Jersey Mike’s has a wonderful nutrition section of their website. Simple to pull the numbers off the web.

Wednesday: **Sigh**

This is the third day in a row where I’ve had heartburn after lunch at work…getting frustrated on this whole egg salad thing. Might try eliminating the mayo all together, and whisking up an English Salad Cream instead.

Salad CREAM??? You ask? If you’re not a die-hard Brit, I can understand the confusion, as this is one of those regional ‘class-identifying’ condiments from across that big pond we call the Atlantic. It sounds interesting, though, and certainly Keto-friendly, so I’m willing to give it a go…and I should be able to scale it down to the 2 eggs I use for egg salad.

Until next week, here’s the Salad Cream recipe I found on the big-ole’-web.

To start you will need to hard boil some eggs, I normally do 6 or 8 depending on the size of the egg. (Fresh salad cream will only last for about 3 to 4 days in the fridge, so it’s pointless making a huge batch.).

Boil the eggs for about 10 minutes then place in ice cold water to cool. Once cooled remove the shells and slice in half, place the yolks in a bowl and wrap the whites in cling film and place in the fridge, you can do something else with them.

To the egg yolks add a teaspoon of English or Dijon mustard, a pinch of salt and pepper, and a splash of vinegar. You can also add a sqeeze of lemon juice too if you want. Blend all these together to form a thick paste. Now start to add some cream, do it slowly and keep mixing. You don’t want the sauce too thick or too runny.

When you think it’s nearly at the right consistency, stop and do a taste test. Now is the time to add more mustard or pepper if your taste buds demand it. Finish off by adding a little more vinegar until you acheive the right consistency.

Of course if you don’t want to add more vinegar add a little more cream, as I said earlier this is a flexible recipe so make it how you like it.

Store in a clean jam jar in the fridge for up to 3/4 days. Use in sandwiches, salads, dips, dressings etc.